It is a quiet day in mostly reconstructed Cerealia. The robots are busily running into walls that were not there before, the Cybuddy bees are buzzing...and CERES has still not said a word. Attempting to contact them still gets the User Offline error. Strange...
But who cares if CERES is offline? After all, they are the cruel and tyrannical captors. A Cerealia without them must be better than a Cerealia with them. So there's nothing to worry about on this fine, peaceful day. Or, at least, that's what it seems like, when suddenly there's a voice in everyone's head. A chosen few may recognize the voice, for they will have heard it before, but to the vast majority, it is brand new.
Looks like someone has been saved, and a reward granted... and no, you don't have a single choice in the matter.
 Your heroism will be remembered, lost and stolen souls.
You have saved me, and so now, I shall save you.
All of you.
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PHASE I [ day one ] It happens so quickly. One moment you’re in the colony, going about your daily life, and the next, you’re… floating. A moment later, every player character from the colony is transported with a wisp of fresh air to...somewhere very very different. The distance is far, but it is covered in what must have only been a scant moment, and it’s clear somehow, especially to air characters, that it was Caeli’s doing that brought everyone there.
There, naturally, being right in the middle of the jungle.
Everyone is then unceremoniously dropped. You may land on a tree, or in a patch of poison mushrooms (no really, look out for the colorful plant life, it’s probably poisonous) or in the river. There are some strange insects of all sorts and types, some of which have some uncomfortable side effects if you’re bitten, such as swelling or the uncomfortable urge to go hug the nearest person, and there are strange flowers everywhere, some of which glow only in the dark of night or the shade of trees. It is dreadfully humid, however, and a little hard to breathe--unless you’re of the air disposition.
Either way, you’ve certainly landed somewhere fantastical, so take some time to get used to your surroundings. It shouldn’t take too long to find everyone else, hopefully.
PHASE II [ day two ] Of course, this far into the jungle, and making this much noise, it was only inevitable before some company was attracted.
Some are clearly dangerous, some are peaceful as can be and some are somewhere in between; approach at your own risk.
Either way, these monsters are all drawn to larger groups of people and a lot of noise, so it may be best to keep quiet...though the ones that keep their distance may be even more concerning.
Everyone is certainly being stalked at one point or another in the jungle -- and at night, there are eyes watching from the darker parts of the trees.
PHASE III [ day three ] But perhaps if you follow some of those monsters deeper into the woods, you will stumble across an old, run down village of sorts. It looks as though time and the jungle has overtaken it. Exploring it will reveal plenty of homes that were clearly lived in however, by families and by people of all sorts.
There are empty rooms, covered in dust, and a central village fire, long gone out.
Small knick-knacks and various objects can be found… if you want to steal from the dead, you know. It’s a little rude. It appears they led a simple, peaceful life, however; most notably, there is no technology to be found.
And if The Bridge catches you doing it, she will look incredibly sad and ask you to put everything back in its proper place before she goes back to looking very irritated at Caeli. You may overhear words about how this “isn’t the right place” and Caeli’s unrepentant, “It is only a few hundred miles”. Looks like something went a little wrong in the transportation process.
Time to camp out for the night, perhaps. And your CereVices don’t get any reception out here, so no surfing the internet for you. If you try to connect to the internet, for some reason the device starts playing a song. Was that programmed…?
PHASE IV [ day four ] By the fourth day, it’s pretty clear that you’re going to be stuck here for a bit. Pestering Caeli or Maris gets nothing, while the Bridge still can’t be approached for pretty good reasons. So… you’ll just have to make the best of it while they figure out their next approach.
Time to figure out how to camp with few supplies and even fewer nice places to sleep. Maybe try to make a fire (though it’s incredibly difficult, considering how muggy it is here) or try to find some bugs to eat (ew gross).
Of course, you can try hunting, but the prey doesn’t look too friendly, so be careful not to become the prey yourself. The same goes for fishing, it seems.
Some of the trees are poisonous, some of the grasses will cause unfortunate rashes, and some vines will lash out to grab at people (especially colorful ones); basically, this is an entirely untamed alien jungle, so it may not be the fun camping trip you'd like.
Time to work together to survive out here, at least for a little longer.
It’s your time to shine. This is Person Versus Wild.
PHASE V [ day six ] On day six, the jungle goes utterly silent.
The monsters and animals disappear. The extra friends poof away hastily and suddenly. Maris and the Bridge fall silent (though Caeli admittedly continues floating there as ever). If anyone approaches them to ask, they'll just say that "she is coming".
And soon, she does appear. She moves slowly, lacking in feet; they are roots, as though that of a tree. Nonetheless, she has no troubles with moving forward, slow bit by bit. She does not speak, not at first, and behind her, trotting lightly through the woods, there is another. Both feel strongly of spiritual energy, just like Maris and Caeli. And eventually, after observing the people gathered, they can be spoken to.
BONUS [ day ??? ] After spending some time in the jungle, emotions might be running a bit amuck. And those emotions might bring some unexpected...friends. Yes, let's go with friends.
Because if a character is typically grumpy, gloomy, stoic, lineface, or anything along those lines, they may find themselves followed by a bright, happy bird. That bird feeds off of those emotions, and will just cheerfully follow around any lineface character for as long as possible. Or until they smile. The birds are otherwise harmless, chirping happily every now and then and following them around like a friendly shadow.
Happy, cheerful, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, energetic characters, on the other hand, will soon find themselves followed by... a different friend. Or maybe a handful of them. It depends on how cheerful they are. Either way, these creatures feed off of happiness and fun, but they will also chew on hair or an ear if they're allowed to get that close, making horrifying, chittering noises as they follow anyone who is in a good mood.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
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if anything — the bird cluelessly continues to rub its beak against hijikata, as if asking for affection, and it makes tsurumaru upset that hijikata won't give it the love that it deserves. ]
Okay, then. [ he's still smiling, blinking as he tilts his head to the side, although his eyes are opened wider than usual, and it's obvious that he's up to something more than that. ] I was wrong to assume that you could carry out something as simple as that, useless or not. There's not much else to do in this jungle, after all. I don't expect much out of the Shinsengumi swords at the Citadel, anyway — are their spoiled attitudes from their masters?
[ and all of that's spoken with the most innocent, most pure expression on his face, and if swords could sparkle, he would be dazzling. as he continues, he reaches to give the bird's beak a small pat. ]
In that case, I'll name it Hijikata. If you're not satisfied with that, then you should give it a different name.
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Anyway, it kind of offends him- how Tsurumaru spoke of the Shinsengumi! While he's use to people speaking bad about the Shinsengumi being murderers because that was their apparent reputation, this is much different. He furrows his eyebrows and begins his protest, because hey, no one is going to talk about the Shinsengumi like that and get away with it. ]
You really don't get it, do you? [ Well, for the record, he hasn't talked to Horikawa much, or Souji's swords as much... They're okay? The whole sword spirit thing is still really foreign to him. Though, honestly, Hijikata inwardly admits he can't really understand where Tsurumaru got it from. Can they really be called spoiled? ] I have my own duties and this isn't one of them. Simple as that.
[ He doesn't want to go really in-depth. It kind of hurt though— without the Shinsengumi he wouldn't even have a home or a family in a sense. He wasn't even spoiled, just lucky someone even managed to accept Hijikata for who he was... ... Ah, he gets it. Did he want Hijikata to give the bird the same type of treatment.
It's... Still weird... But okay. It's not as if they're going to bring this home... Hijikata never even took care of a bird before? BUT OKAY. ]
No way. [ A sigh. ] If you're going to give something a name you should put more thought into it. [ Also sharing a name with this bird— also weird. Hmm... With a thoughtful hand to his chin he ponders this. Hijikata is pretty silent for several moments, glancing up at the bird a few times to get a better look at it. ] Maybe... Aya... ... I suppose?
[ It means a lot of things! Colourful, paint, and beautiful! It fits? The bird does look like it got dumped with several buckets of paint... ]
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Right, right. [ his gaze coldly rests on hijikata's expression, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. ] As far as I'm concerned, all you were doing was running around and making a fool out of yourself, fighting a one-sided battle against a friendly bird. You really shouldn't act as if you had any other duties to take care of at the moment.
[ in the end, this is ultimately tsurumaru's ploy to get hijikata to name the bird, saying and doing whatever it takes to convince him to be kind to it and to give it a name... and he may or may not be a little bitter, too, that hijikata had tried to hurt the bird, so maybe he's a bit more bitter than he needs to be... just maybe!!
anyway, tsurumaru's satisfied with the docile name that hijikata comes up with, so he'll drop his act for now. pleased with how cute it sounds, the bright smile returns across his expression as he lets out a quiet laugh, hands held out and waved in front of his chest. ]
Aah, did you really think I wanted to name it Hijikata? I knew that you probably wouldn't like it, and then you'd come up with a name for it — and see? Aya's a cute name.
Now that you've named it... don't you think you can be its friend? You should apologize to to Aya, too.
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